My OperaOpera strikes a pose
Thursday, March 25, 2004 10:40:48 PM
at CTIA conference in Atlanta!
==sorry about the downtime but I have been on the road quite a bit lately cooking up an interesting stew of business opportunities for Opera==
Back to the 3 day CTIA experience
http://www.ctiawireless2004.com/
Opera's show team consisted of Christian, Michelle (our PR rep for the US), Jan (one of our key mobile product managers) and myself. One interesting note to add is that Jan, mentioned above, celebrated his FIRST trip ever to the US!!
He would probably sigh if he read this right now because anywhere we went in Atlanta, we made that announcent to Jan's chagrin. Well, he was a great sport as always and overall I think he enjoyed the states and found that most of his pre-conceived notions were all true. He, as well as Michelle, were great assets to Christian and I for the show and I think I can safely say it was Opera's best CTIA ever!
We had a "pod" at the Symbian Pavillion. Basically a two man stand where we had a pc or mac, display, demo devices, brochures and such for the enjoyment of many of the show's 30,000 attendees. The Symbian booth was located adjacent to Sony-Ericsson in Hall 5 and housed about 14 or so other key Symbian partners.
Success at these types of shows is all about efficiency and planning. They can be an incredible waste of time and resources if one does not do weeks of preparation, efficient scheduling of meetings and networking events, secure intimate connections with the press and analysts, and above all, demonstrate the most sizzling technology possible to the crowd. If you can achieve all that, and position yourself for some "suprises", you are ahead of the game. Knowing what your competitors are doing and learning about new technologies and industry trends that can expand your product or market are essential to a successful show.
So what did we learn?
First off, the US mobile market seems to be catching up with it's European and Japanese rivals. 3G is creeping closer and US operators are starting to get it.
Stan Sigman, CEO of Cingular, conceded that U.S. carriers had been behind wireless data providers in European and Asian markets. "But now the marketplace is ready [in the U.S.] and the timing is right. We're ready to take off in data."
This trend bodes well for us. Opera's main message is that there is ONE Internet, not a desktop and mobile variation. With Opera, web content developers, operators, handset makers, integrators, and most of all end users benefit by using a standards based powerful full-HTML browser to realize that familiar desktop-like experience on a wireless handset. It's time for mobile Operators in the US to subscribe to this line of thinking and deliver a true mobile Internet experience to their customers.
Maybe the most prevalent theme at CTIA was megapixel camera phones. Industry analysts have pointed to resolutions above 1 megapixel as a major milestone for the camera-phone market, making the devices more than just a novelty. Nokia (7610), Samsung, Siemens and Sony-Ericsson all demonstrated very cool megapixel phones. Opera is being bundled with the 7610.
All in all, while there were no revolutionary new product announcements, all phone makers strutted out some very slick designs- let's just say, don't make any quick handset buys without doing some research and maybe exhibiting some patience- some very cool stuff is coming.
Opera had a real nice annoucement regarding our voice browsing (X + V) solution: http://www.opera.com/pressreleases/en/2004/03/23/ Almost immediately our phones started ringing and email inbox started filling up! Just about all of our partners have some interest in this and some of them have a ton. Imagine the possbilities, especially in your handset and your car?? Can't wait to try this myself and I hope to have a version to try on my Mac in the not too distant future. Look out for a download link on Opera.com by Summer.
Overall, I think we all got alot out of the show and we learned how to better serve the operator market in the US. We have some very exciting opportunities there. If you have the chance, ask your personal operator when Opera will be available on the phones in their network. We need all the help we can get as these 1000 lb. gorilla's can be very hard to budge
Interestingly, the Georgia World Congress center where the show was held is right next to the CNN Center, where the one and only Britney Spears was holding a concert on Tuesday night. Kindly, one of our partners invited the Opera team to attend the concert but we made the executive decision that alternately, attending the CTIA Gala and networking with customers was more important- the sacrifices us sales guys make for the good of Opera!! Well, it was still a strange scene seeing all of those 14 year old girls mixed in with 30-something mobile-nerds in the CNN Center as the former was entering the concert and latter egressing from the exhibit halls. Wonder what Larry King would say about that?
Anyway, back to reality here in Austin and that means a couple days of sorting out business cards and notes from the show and following up on some action points.
Time for bigtime focus on US operators for me and Christian is on a roll with some very interesting embedded Opera deals on the Linux platform. It's going to be a busy spring guys but what else is new right??
In closing, as I sit here at Starbucks after a long day, I can't help but think what else this super-charged company is capable of. They already are a 4 billion dollar business selling millions of people everyday, now they have announced a new digital music service for their stores, what's next...hmmmm...well I actually know the answer to that question but I will save it for a later journal entry.
Until then, drink those latte's, burn those CD's, and at the checkout counter ask them, "can I also have the Opera browser to go please"...
Maybe that will get back to Mr. Howard Schulz and I will get a phone call.
March- in like a lion, out like a lamb
OS
==sorry about the downtime but I have been on the road quite a bit lately cooking up an interesting stew of business opportunities for Opera==
Back to the 3 day CTIA experience
http://www.ctiawireless2004.com/
Opera's show team consisted of Christian, Michelle (our PR rep for the US), Jan (one of our key mobile product managers) and myself. One interesting note to add is that Jan, mentioned above, celebrated his FIRST trip ever to the US!!
He would probably sigh if he read this right now because anywhere we went in Atlanta, we made that announcent to Jan's chagrin. Well, he was a great sport as always and overall I think he enjoyed the states and found that most of his pre-conceived notions were all true. He, as well as Michelle, were great assets to Christian and I for the show and I think I can safely say it was Opera's best CTIA ever!We had a "pod" at the Symbian Pavillion. Basically a two man stand where we had a pc or mac, display, demo devices, brochures and such for the enjoyment of many of the show's 30,000 attendees. The Symbian booth was located adjacent to Sony-Ericsson in Hall 5 and housed about 14 or so other key Symbian partners.
Success at these types of shows is all about efficiency and planning. They can be an incredible waste of time and resources if one does not do weeks of preparation, efficient scheduling of meetings and networking events, secure intimate connections with the press and analysts, and above all, demonstrate the most sizzling technology possible to the crowd. If you can achieve all that, and position yourself for some "suprises", you are ahead of the game. Knowing what your competitors are doing and learning about new technologies and industry trends that can expand your product or market are essential to a successful show.
So what did we learn?
First off, the US mobile market seems to be catching up with it's European and Japanese rivals. 3G is creeping closer and US operators are starting to get it.
Stan Sigman, CEO of Cingular, conceded that U.S. carriers had been behind wireless data providers in European and Asian markets. "But now the marketplace is ready [in the U.S.] and the timing is right. We're ready to take off in data."
This trend bodes well for us. Opera's main message is that there is ONE Internet, not a desktop and mobile variation. With Opera, web content developers, operators, handset makers, integrators, and most of all end users benefit by using a standards based powerful full-HTML browser to realize that familiar desktop-like experience on a wireless handset. It's time for mobile Operators in the US to subscribe to this line of thinking and deliver a true mobile Internet experience to their customers.
Maybe the most prevalent theme at CTIA was megapixel camera phones. Industry analysts have pointed to resolutions above 1 megapixel as a major milestone for the camera-phone market, making the devices more than just a novelty. Nokia (7610), Samsung, Siemens and Sony-Ericsson all demonstrated very cool megapixel phones. Opera is being bundled with the 7610.
All in all, while there were no revolutionary new product announcements, all phone makers strutted out some very slick designs- let's just say, don't make any quick handset buys without doing some research and maybe exhibiting some patience- some very cool stuff is coming.
Opera had a real nice annoucement regarding our voice browsing (X + V) solution: http://www.opera.com/pressreleases/en/2004/03/23/ Almost immediately our phones started ringing and email inbox started filling up! Just about all of our partners have some interest in this and some of them have a ton. Imagine the possbilities, especially in your handset and your car?? Can't wait to try this myself and I hope to have a version to try on my Mac in the not too distant future. Look out for a download link on Opera.com by Summer.
Overall, I think we all got alot out of the show and we learned how to better serve the operator market in the US. We have some very exciting opportunities there. If you have the chance, ask your personal operator when Opera will be available on the phones in their network. We need all the help we can get as these 1000 lb. gorilla's can be very hard to budge
Interestingly, the Georgia World Congress center where the show was held is right next to the CNN Center, where the one and only Britney Spears was holding a concert on Tuesday night. Kindly, one of our partners invited the Opera team to attend the concert but we made the executive decision that alternately, attending the CTIA Gala and networking with customers was more important- the sacrifices us sales guys make for the good of Opera!!
Well, it was still a strange scene seeing all of those 14 year old girls mixed in with 30-something mobile-nerds in the CNN Center as the former was entering the concert and latter egressing from the exhibit halls. Wonder what Larry King would say about that? Anyway, back to reality here in Austin and that means a couple days of sorting out business cards and notes from the show and following up on some action points.
Time for bigtime focus on US operators for me and Christian is on a roll with some very interesting embedded Opera deals on the Linux platform. It's going to be a busy spring guys but what else is new right??
In closing, as I sit here at Starbucks after a long day, I can't help but think what else this super-charged company is capable of. They already are a 4 billion dollar business selling millions of people everyday, now they have announced a new digital music service for their stores, what's next...hmmmm...well I actually know the answer to that question but I will save it for a later journal entry.
Until then, drink those latte's, burn those CD's, and at the checkout counter ask them, "can I also have the Opera browser to go please"...
Maybe that will get back to Mr. Howard Schulz and I will get a phone call.
March- in like a lion, out like a lamb
OS
